To hear the candidate himself tell it, Mr. Romney believes above all in "data." As he told us on a visit, his management style includes "wallowing" in data about a problem, analyzing that data like the business consultant he once was, and then using it to devise a solution. A major theme of his candidacy is that he'll bring that business model to a "broken" Washington, apply it to Congress and the bureaucracy, and thus triumph over gridlock and the status quo.
To which we'd say: Good luck with that. Washington's problem isn't a lack of data, or a failure to calibrate the incentives as in the business world. Congress and the multiple layers of government respond exactly as you'd expect given the incentives for self-preservation and turf protection that always exist in political institutions. The only way to overcome them is with leadership on behalf of good ideas backed by public support. The fact that someone as bright as Mr. Romney doesn't recognize this Beltway reality risks a Presidency that would get rolled quicker than you can say Jimmy Carter.
All the more so because we haven't been able to discern from his campaign, or his record in Massachusetts, what his core political principles are. Mr. Romney spent his life as a moderate Republican, and he governed the Bay State that way after his election in 2002. While running this year, however, he has reinvented himself as a conservative from radio talk show-casting, especially on immigration.
The problem is not that Mr. Romney is willing to reconsider his former thinking. Nor is it so much that his apparent convictions always seem in sync with the audience to which he is speaking at the moment. (Think $20 billion in corporate welfare for Michigan auto makers.) Plenty of politicians attune their positions to new constituencies. The larger danger is that Mr. Romney's conversions are not motivated by expediency or mere pandering but may represent his real governing philosophy.
Read the whole thing.
WSJ argues that Romney led Massachusetts in establishing a state health-care program only a liberal Democrat could love (the Bay State's insurance premiums are among the nation's highest).
Further, while WSJ doesn't come out and say it, the article's discussion of McCain previews a likely endorsement by the paper.
This is significant.
WSJ is the leading libertarian broasheet in the country. Its support for American markets and free trade and peoples is legendary.
I've disagreed with the paper on immigration issues, but no other editorial board in the country has been as consistent in its support for the Bush adminstration's foreign policy and war in Iraq.
The editors are obviously looking ahead to November as well.
While the far right-wing of the party sees McCain as a weak general election candidate - and as in fact more liberal than Hillary Clinton herself - WSJ's editorial board, while not perfect, has nailed it on Romney's comparative inexperience and vulnerability.
McCain's the best candidate for the GOP nomination. Whether such reason sinks in among the Malkin-tents and Rush-bots remains to be seen.
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